Far from a novice when it comes to DJing and more recently production, Heist seems to have his fingers in many pies. Citing Metalheadz, Digital Soundboy and Full Cycle as a few of the places his productions have called home he straddles the line between D&B and dubstep and is insistent on keeping his sound both fresh energetic. Ahead of his appearance at Dub All Or Nothing this Friday at Cable we caught with Heist to talk about his labels, influences and his view on the current state of dubstep.

So you’ve been DJing for quite a few years now and have released D&B records on labels like Metalheadz, why the move to dubstep?
Yeah that's right it's been a while! I wasn't really into dubstep when I first heard it but as time went on, I started hearing more artists that caught me, people like Joker and Gemini for example, and I started to get into it more. I wouldn't necessarily say that 'Heist is moving to dubstep' as such. Heist will always be D&B at heart, but I'm just experimenting with the sound at 140 bpm, and enjoying it.

What do you make of the dubstep scene at the moment. With big acts like Magnetic Man and Chase & Status crossing over into the mainstream what do you feel the future is for the scene?
It seems to be pretty healthy right now, and it’s still a relatively young scene too. There's a lot of people doing a variety of sounds and pretty much anyone can find some sort of dubstep they like, you just need to listen to the right artists. I also like the crowds you get at dubstep nights, they seem to be there to just have a good time and not because it’s the cool thing to do. Future-wise I’d like to see it keep strong and doing pretty much what it’s doing now.

Who or what were some of your early influences in music?
Pretty much got to blame Prodigy for getting me into electronic music. 'The Prodigy Experience' was a massive changing point in my life. Also people like Dillinja, Photek and Optical were huge influences on me back in the 90's when I was only DJing and hadn’t learnt how to produce yet.

Tell us about your label’s Sumo Beatz and Calypso, what were the concepts behind their inception?
Calypso was an imprint that was set up to help bring through new artists to the scene. Since its creation we've had tracks from Malfoy, Imp & Jfm, DJ Pleasure, Sensai and others alongside stuff from myself too. It’s still going well today and we are about to release a new single from myself which is 'Earths Core' with 'City At The Edge Of Midnight' on the b-side.

I started Sumo Beatz because I felt I had come quite a long way with my skills for music production and engineering and wanted a brand new label where I kept the quality high to reflect where I had got to. It was basically set up for big tracks that I felt were getting the support by enough people in the scene to warrant being on there. Sumo Beatz is only on release number 5 and it’s been very much about quality over quantity. We have some new tracks ready to go and are just getting artwork finished for the next single.

Is there any up-and-coming talent that you’ve had your eye on?
I’ve been getting some good music from a few people over the last 12 - 18 months. People like Harvest, Plasta, Splosh and Spaow, Roartex, Version, Dave Owen and Aesthetics are all names to watch out for and are all doing their own thing and forging their own sound. They all have their own little flavour that makes them sound like them in my opinion. That's what I look for in a new artist - something that says this is me, this is my sound.

What is your favourite tune at the moment and why?Hard to pick one track out of everything. I love ‘Vision’ by Joker, it was his last single and I’ve been playing it pretty much every set I can, The bass is just disgusting, but its married beautifully with vocals, flava and musical vibes perfectly, that’s what I love so much about it, almost like a perfect balance.

What have you got planned for the rest of 2011?
I’m currently working very closely with Goldie on the next Goldie album project. It’s taking up quite a bit of my time but is going very well, I would say it’s the best work that we have ever done together since I started sound engineering for him over 5 years ago. I’m also engineering for some other huge names that I can’t really mention in this interview, but it’s an honour to work with them and help them to get there vision from their mind to the studio.

I’m also working on more tracks for my labels Co Lab, Calypso and Sumo Beatz to release alongside the other music we've signed for the labels. As I mentioned above I’m experimenting with tempos and enjoying work at 140 bpm and 128 bpm. Making D&B for over 10 years now has made me feel like I want to change up my tempo and what I'm doing. It’s natural to feel like that I think. Also the fact that dubstep is getting played everywhere and heard all over national radio you can’t help but be inspired in my opinion.

Heist will be playing at Dub All Or Nothing on Friday 23rd September at Cable alongside Inspector Dubplate, Southbound Hangers, Dream, Jesta and more.

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